Girish's Blog

  Photo Credit: Daily Pioneer Signs of Spiritual Progress - 2 Yesterday, I spoke about some of the outer signs of progress – there were others, desire to have non-veg food, alcoholic drinks, chewing tobacco – all habits inimical for spiritual progress fell away one by one. Chewing tobacco was the toughest one as I kept giving it up and kept continuing. This happened thrice – the third time I got severe boils in my mouth which prevented me from opening my mouth and thus I had difficulty in speaking and eating. After three days I recovered and after that I completely stopped as the message from Swamiji to his errant child was loud and clear – stop or else! I had started feeling the vibrations pretty early – maybe something to do with my previous birth. In 2015, in Rajkot Swamiji had told five of us that we had done a lot of penance in our previous birth, so, maybe because of that I started feeling the vibrations very early, right from day 1 in fact. The vibrations start inside th...

  Photo Credit : Daily Pioneer Signs of Spiritual Progress - 1 Swamiji has been asked these questions many times – “How do I know my state? How do I know if I have progressed spiritually?” Swamiji invariably answers, “The very fact that you are asking means you have not progressed!” I too have been asked this question several times and I can answer only through my experiences. I used to be hot tempered and would react like a person on a short fuse if something went against my thought process or will! That of course used to be temporary and I would calm down in a while and apologise even on seeing the other side of the story! That was my first observation – I calmed down, the anger has dissipated, it rarely comes to the fore now. It mainly happens when I am driving in crazy undisciplined traffic – I kind of lose my temper, I am fully aware that this is not correct and I am working on it, I am sure with His Grace this barrier too shall fall. The other sign is continuous good heal...

  Photo Credit: Spiritualify Inborn Traits When we take birth, we are born with a lot of baggage from the previous birth – these are our inborn traits, impressions from actions of those births which have yet to be worked out. These could be physical or emotional – take love for instance. One falls in love at first sight – is this love for the physical appearance, the visual beauty or is it something else? Our parents, grand-parents always told us that we got married and then love happened, and the contrary also is true love happened and that’s why we got married! Though such love stories today more often than not end up in separation. The attraction of the outer form or physical appearance, attraction to the spoken word or skill with words are all part of the illusion of life to which one gets pulled into and then one gets lost in that illusion, till one is drawn out of that illusion and set on the correct path again. For this to happen one needs a teacher or guide or spiritual...

  Photo Credit: Greg Rakozy on Unsplash What is Chitta? – Part 2 We can look at the lake for a comparative understanding of the chitta. If you have gone boating in a lake you may have seen that when your boat is in the centre of the lake and is not moving, it may be possible to see the bottom of the lake. This can only happen when there are no ripples in the lake, if the lake is not muddy and the surface of the lake is calm and serene. The lake is the chitta, the ripples in the lake represent our thoughts and right at the bottom of the lake is our true Self. The mind too has different states – we all have heard or read about Tamas , Rajas , and Sattva . A person with a tamsic bent of mind is rooted in darkness and this state is found mostly in brutes and idiots – they only act out of base emotions, to hurt or to injure. No other idea comes in that state of mind. Then there is the active state of mind or rajas, whose primary motive is power and enjoyment – their aim is to rule...

  Photo Credit: Greg Rakozy on Unsplash What is Chitta? Chitta is difficult to describe in English, it can be called attention, inner mind, mind-stuff and so on. ‘Patanjali’s Yoga’ says - yoga is restraining the mind-stuff ( chitta ) from taking various forms ( vrittis ). There are four aspects of consciousness – the mind, intellect, ego and chitta. The mind receives the information from the senses, the intellect analyses it and the ego evaluates it according to how it affects us, and finally through the chitta we judge it positively or negatively according to our learned likes and dislikes. The chitta or mind-stuff may be defined as the whole mental process – it is this feeling aspect of chitta that Swami Paramhansa Yogananda most emphasised – “Overcome your likes and dislikes”, he said. Swamiji always tell us to focus our mind on the crown of our head, this directs the innate energy within us in the upward direction thus clearing the chakras as it passes through the meridian...

Photo by: Jay Castor on Unsplash   Become like a Lotus Flower In Indian philosophy the lotus flower has a special place – become like a lotus we are told! What does this signify? You are all aware that the lotus flower blooms in all its glory in muck, meaning its roots are in the muck and the flower blooms above the marshy muck. So, even if you want to pluck the flower, you yourself have to wade through the muck to reach the flower. The best part of the lotus is that even its petals are silky smooth and no muck stays on it and the petal remains as pristine and pure as ever! From the above you would have probably realised the direction of this brief post – we humans live in society; society is full of people of all kinds and thus it is comparable to the muck in which the lotus blooms. If we go into a coalmine with white clothes, we are bound to dirty our clothes, similarly when we live in society with all its good and bad, we are bound to pick up both the good and bad vibes eman...

  Photo Credit: Ideapod Ego & Guilt – Two Sides of the same Coin In spirituality, ego and guilt are two sides of the same coin. These two emotions are extremely dangerous for spiritual progress – let me try and explain how and why from whatever I have seen and experienced. After I joined Samarpan Meditation and took diksha (initiation ceremony), started meditating regularly morning and evening, there was one thing which I would always observe during big events. There were a lot of volunteers who would throw their weight around, speak rudely and generally behave obnoxiously. I would always wonder why this happened, and much later realised that this was the ego of being a ‘volunteer’ and performing his duty as a volunteer. Many times, this would be because of over-enthusiasm – but these volunteers do not realise the negative attention they attract. Everybody feels vibrations, gets fragrances with the Guru’s grace when the meditation happens in a large group, that is because ...

  Photo Credit: New York Times || New Spiritual Consumerism Anything in excess is Harmful This is a very old proverb which is a guide for doing anything in moderation. It helps us live a balanced life. It also helps to give attention to each aspect of our life. I remember my parents always telling us not to overdo stuff, because as growing up children we were extremely boisterous and would go to extremes in our mischief. Her strong and firm voice would always tell us to tone down on our mischief. With the passage of time this sane voice would become a kind of guide when it came to crossing the line. It is not that I have not crossed the line – I have – but with the full knowledge that if things go wrong, I will have to face the consequences! And they did go wrong and I did face the consequences happily. Stuff happens in life for a reason – if I am crossing the line that means I have to that act as part of my karmic bonds, I have therefore to endure the consequences and move on ...

  Photo Credit: The Third Eye Awakening - Teachable What we See, Hear and Say What we see, what we hear and what we say are in a way connected. Our eyes see and read all sorts of things throughout the day on an ongoing basis, our ears are recipients of all kinds of chatter. Some of it is good, some not good and some immaterial – but all that we see and hear gets registered in our brain and in our subconscious mind. Our brain and subconscious carries imprints of millions and millions of images and sounds which have a far-reaching effect on the way we behave in public. If we desire to progress spiritually it is critical for us to analyse where our eyes fall and what our ears hear daily. We need to make a conscious effort that our eyes only absorb positive images and ensure that we turn our eyes away from negative images. What I am referring to is mainly the media – both print and audio-visual – what sells is mainly negative and most media houses have their own agenda, so what one get...

  Photo Credit:Quotefancy|Joseph Pilates Importance of Physical Well-being As we grow up, we take our body for granted – we actually subject it to abuse by excessive eating, drinking, not exercising etc. When we are in our growing years, we really do not realise the impact of this abuse as the rate of recovery of our cells is much faster than the dying rate of our cells. According to Wikipedia, between 50 and 70 billion cells die each day in an average adult. Based on that, the average adult must make 50 to 70 billion cells each day to compensate for those that have died since this is an adult human and there is no net growth. To add onto that, your body needs to replace the red blood cells it loses. Every second, 2.5 million red blood cells die (a relatively small number compared the trillions of cells you have in your body). These are replaced at a rate of about 2 million per second (again, from Wikipedia). The rate of red blood cell production slows as you grow older. In order ...

  Photo Credit:Richer Life Journey Don’t Question the Fundamentals This world is made up of all kinds of people, theists, atheists, nature lovers, open minded people, closed minded people, etc. The permutations and combinations are too vast to put down on paper, so let me just begin by saying when we study in school, college, university, we are always asked to test the fundamentals scientifically – whether any theory can be proved or not. In fact, all scientific research is based on the systematic collection, interpretation and evaluation of data and that too in a planned manner. Your aim is to prove or disprove the hypothesis which you are trying to establish. In the material world you question the fundamentals and then believe it when your question is answered scientifically. But the exact opposite is true when it comes to spirituality. I have seen and heard many people question the very existence of God! Which is absolutely fine, you should question and then you should ask y...

  Photo Credit: SciTechDaily The Joy of Spiritual Experience In our day to day stressed out lives we all look for joy and happiness – some of us try to find it in temples, churches, mosques, synagogues, some go to the beach, forest, mountains, sailing, others look for it through addictions like drinks, drugs, and other intoxicants. Basically, everyone is trying to find joy and happiness outside. There comes a time in life, when your seeking happiness becomes so intense, and the happiness which you get in the material world starts feeling inadequate – that is when you start looking for guidance from someone who can show you the path. When the intensity is such that you cannot bear it, the universe directs you to your spiritual guide, the one who will show you the path to real joy and bliss. Once you meet your enlightened Master, he lights the lamp within you and you embark on the journey to inner peace and joy. He teaches you how to meditate, how to ruminate on questions about l...

  Photo credit: Transformational Art College Seeing Visions during Meditation Of late many people have asked me the meaning of visions one sees while meditating. Getting visions is related to the eyes and the eyes have a connection to the agya chakra. Swamiji has always said that once you reach the agya chakra – that is good as well as bad. The good part is that you have reached the agya chakra – means you have reached the sixth level while clearing the five chakras below the agya chakra. Once you reach the agya chakra you start seeing visions of deities, samadhist Gurus, some see a flame, a blue light which moves in circles and so on. So, what is this and why does this happen – this is the most common question. The agya chakra holds all the impressions of the past, whether it is guilt, anger, hurt or spiritual in nature. So, the visions of deities, Gurus, saints, etc are basically of those from the past. These impressions are imbedded deep in the subconscious mind or chitta. Once ...

  Photo Credit: The Advocate In Spirituality, Effort has no Importance In the material world a genuine effort, with full intent and a positive approach is required to get desired results. It is said – ‘hard work pays’ – and so it does. But in the world of spirituality effort has no importance because gains are made through awareness and building up one’s soul consciousness. When we make an effort at doing our Guru’s work then we are not doing it at the soul-level, as effort is physical and involves our personal interest or ego, then the result of your ‘effort’ will never be the result which your Guru or spiritual master expects. While performing Guru-karya (Guru’s work) do it selflessly with the feeling that you are only an instrument of the Guru-energies and your work will happen without any effort on your part. Connecting to the collective consciousness of the Spiritual Master gives you a subtle boost and support, help and guidance comes from unexpected quarters as the seemin...

Photo Credit: Detox centre of Colorado   Importance of ‘Authorised’ in Spirituality   Swamiji keeps telling us about the importance of the word ‘authorised’ in his various discourses. Many of us actually do not understand what he means by that in the spiritual sense. We are all aware of the meaning of this word in the material world or its commercial applications. In the material world it means to give official permission for or approval to an undertaking or agent. Meaning you give an authority to someone to do something on your behalf. In companies you have authority limits set for sanctioning bills or bank payments. This is the stuff we really understand because it has acceptability in the material world. What happens in the spiritual world is when you get a sanction from the higher energies to do a certain kind of work, you are ‘authorised’ to do that work. When this happens you need to submit to the sanctioning authority – that is your Spiritual Master or Guru – and do...

  Photo Credit: LetterPile-The Dark Night of the Soul Body vs Soul Consciousness Throughout our life we live under the control of our physical body – how is that you may ask! All decisions are taken by our mind based on mental imprints which are left behind over several births. Quite a few people have certain fears imprinted in their psyche and they are absolutely clueless about the reason for such fears. Layers upon layers of dust have gathered upon the soul and one has stopped listening to it a long time ago. As children, we probably heard our soul talk to us and we may have even said aloud what it told us – but invariably the adults in our house – parents, relatives, elder siblings would have said that this is just baby-talk and ignore it. Over time, after being ignored repeatedly, you too stopped believing in your inner voice and the soul went quiet! I am sure it keeps warning you now and then, don’t do this, don’t do that – but you ignore it because your mind tells you – t...

  Photo credit: FinerMinds Do you get any Me-time? In the modern world, life is so hectic that one hardly gets any time with oneself! Everyone is busy running from end to end in his/her work and does not find spare time at all. This constant running around saps one’s energy and leaves one drained out at the end of the day. The form of relaxation after an exhausting day is to go to the club or bar and have a drink or two. This again is detrimental to health, but intoxication is the only form of instant gratification for releasing one’s pent-up stress or so people think! All these extraneous efforts at dealing with stress end up damaging your health – mental, physical and familial. So, what kind of me-time are we talking about which will give us the stress-relieving boost that we are all looking for? You need to spend real quality time with yourself – so, you think of holidays with family – you go to hill resorts, forest camps, river side camps, etc. Here, you feel calm for the m...

  Photo Credit: Saybrook University Is Meditation about being Thoughtless? There are several meditation practitioners who tell you that meditation is all about being thoughtless. One becomes free of thoughts only on reaching the Agya or Brow Chakra. Here too, this happens only when your Agya chakra is cleansed and it becomes pure. The real journey in meditation happens from this point onwards. In Samarpan Meditation, His Holiness Shivkrupanand says that the thoughtless state is the first step for going into meditation, whereas others tell you that thoughtlessness itself is meditation! From experience I can definitely say that becoming thoughtless is just the beginning, the real journey starts thereafter. Going into deep meditation can happen only when the monkey mind is quiet. The journey from the Agya chakra to Sahastrar or Crown chakra – that is into Akash or Space happens only when the mind is absolutely still. It is from this point onwards that other dimensions start o...

  Photo Credit: Daily Pioneer - Spiritual Consciousness Let the Madness Flow In an absolutely insane world where everything that is happening is beyond comprehension, it would be sensible to be just mad and let the madness flow. Everyone thinks the other person is mad because he/she does not think in the same manner. Anything out of the ordinary is considered mad or deviant or crazy. That’s as may be – but when we are out looking for the ultimate truth, we become seekers, then we definitely need a degree of madness which is way beyond normal! Every individual is on his/her own journey. Every person is living in a somnolent state and needs that spark of extra madness to deviate from the normal path on to the road less travelled – that of a seeker of the ultimate truth. Once that spark turns into a burning flame, then nothing else matters as you are now on a trip with an inexhaustible supply of oxygen which will keep on burning within till you reach your destination. For some t...

  Photo Credit: Ayush Darpan - Chanting of Om                                                     The Brahmanaad or Cosmic Sound In many spiritual discourses we have heard Gurus or Spiritual Masters talk about the Brahmanaad or Cosmic Sound. I always used to wonder what it would be like to hear this sound. The sound of creation, will it be just a hummmmm or will it be something more divine, more profound, or something which is beyond description. Sometime in August of 2017 I sat for meditation at 3.40am. I was in deep meditation after a chanting the Guru-mantra. My head had become heavy and it was resting on my chest. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard a slight popping sound in my left ear. It was as if a door shut at a distance. A couple of seconds later, I had the same experience in my right ear too. I felt a certain numbness. The kind we feel when ...